The Ugly Price Of Beauty: Booty Shots Gone Bad

Meet Vanity Wonder. As you can see, Miss Wonder fell victim to the growing trend of acquiring the highly sought after big booty in hopes of appearing more desirable. And while she is still around to tell her tale via YouTube videos and her book “Shot Girls”, there are some girls who are not so lucky. Hence, my bewilderment.

I’m not really sure how I am suppose to feel about Karima Gordon who died because she decided that a larger, rounder, out to HERE posterior would improve her physical appearance. Honestly, my mouth kind of dropped when I learned that she had died as a result of a botched booty injection. Apparently, she was injected with a fatal amount of silicone-like substance which resulted in blood clots in her lungs causing her death. Seriously? This incident coupled with the situation with Oneal Ron Morris who injected cement into a woman who wanted butt enhancements and Apryl Michelle Brown who lost her limbs as a result of a bigger booty put me in a state of inexplicable confusion.

As a result, I went into a silent monologue with myself really trying to analyze the ever so popular booty shots. I mean, to be completely real with myself, I can’t deny the visual appeal of a more rounded behind. It brings a sort of aesthetic completeness to any ensemble, which is nice. I guess. Let’s not forget to mention the apparent social mobility that it seems to provide (ie: Kim Kardashian and Nicki Minaj). Thus, the booty appears to have some economic value and can seriously increase one’s career opportunities. It is no wonder why everybody and their mama’s mama is out to get them a little more junk in the trunk.

But to inject/surgically alter my very blessed God created body in order to appease some warped unrealistic beauty standard is just something I am not into. And the fact that so many women are not only contemplating but in fact getting these alterations is just a little beyond me. I mean just hearing the horror stories alone is enough to scare me off. Just look at Miss Apryl Michelle Brown below.

Source: frugivoremag.com

Yes, this woman no longer has arms or legs all for the sake of the infamous donk. This is a hot mess! The people who fall victim to these botched surgeries are those who are going about it the wrong way and find people who are unlicensed to administer the shots. In an article posted by ABCnews.com, Vanity Wonder stated that many people don’t care that it is illegal or that they will not know what substance will be injected into their bodies. People still just want the booty.

But even for those who do go about it the right way, they only want it because this is the purported beauty standard. The entertainment industry reaffirms and perpetuates this standard by over saturating the public with images of women with gloriously amplified behinds. Even as you look on at before and after pictures of Nicki Minaj or Vanity Wonder with overwhelming repulsion, subconsciously, doubt slowly begins to manifest making you entertain the idea. Then you find yourself in front of the mirror asking questions like: What would it be like? Could I use a little more back there? No one should feel guilty about this. I know I don’t. That is the media successfully performing its job function. To convince and persuade you to think/buy whatever it is they’re selling in order to keep the wheels spinning on the devil’s capitalist machine.

However, transforming the fantasy into a reality is a different story. The way that American media outlets promote the “ideal” beauty aesthetic is so pervasive that it literally entrenches and holds captive whatever part of the brain that produces logic and reasoning. It is almost as if possession has occurred because what else could explain why a woman would feel so inadequate that she would decided to pay in money, limbs, or loss of life for physical alterations just to appeal to a single look. And in the case of Vanity Wonder and others like her, the alterations are beyond extreme. I mean did you see her picture? This is doing extras on top of extras.

When I look at these women with the beyond obvious body enhancements I can’t help but feel that we (not all, but definitely some), Black women are actively participating in the caricaturization of our bodies. It is as if we took the damaging stereotypes associated with Black women (Sapphire, Jezebel, Ho) and said “hmmm, I wonder how I can take this to the next level?” So what does this all mean? Is the desire for exaggerated features a result of feelings of inadequacy when our bodies don’t measure up against hegemonic beauty ideals? Or is the desire for a bigger booty just another way in which we have decided to navigate through an oppressive space where Black beauty is not valued?

I not really sure what the answer is but it is something that is due for further discussion. At the end of the day, if you want a bigger booty by all means do what you got to do. I am not one to judge. Just take care of you. Do your research and don’t cast aside all of those lovely hard earned common sense skills that were passed onto you. And that way, you can avoid some of these tragic/fatal situations that some women have encountered on the quest for the so-called perfect body.

Check out what Vanity Wonder had to say about butt injections below. Feel free to share your thoughts.

2 thoughts on “The Ugly Price Of Beauty: Booty Shots Gone Bad”

Wow!! It is so sad to see that people would go to the extreme just because they THINK this may help their “image” or “career.” I even feel that surgical procedures, such as gastric surgeries, fall into this category. For example, Ms. Donda West, may she rest peacefully, but people have to realize that these things can become fatal and not people should not just rest their eyes on the “prize.” The human body automatically wants to fight off foreign objects, therefore there will ALWAYS be some type of reaction to those type of causes. And yes, those effects can be detrimental.